Phil Castle, The Business Times

Increasing sales and higher prices have postioned the real estate market to return to levels not seen in Mesa County since before the Great Recession.

“The good times continue,” said Robert Bray, chief executive officer of Bray Real Estate in Grand Junction.

Annette Miller, senior vice president of Heritage Title Co. in Grand Junction, described the latest year-over-year gains in transactions and dollar volume as “continued healthy increases for the year.”

Miller said 520 real estate transactions worth a combined $126 million were reported in Mesa County in July. Compared to the same month last year, sales were up 14.5 percent and dollar volume up 19.2 percent.

Two large transactions bolstered dollar volume, Miller said: the sale of the Ramada Inn on Horizon Drive for more than $3 million and the sale of a residence on 25 acres on Sundial Road for $1 million. But there were actually more large transactions in July 2016 with four deals accounting for a total of $5.3 million.

The latest numbers bring year-to-date totals so far for 2017 to 3,067 transactions worth a collective $727 million, Miller said. Compared to the same, seven-month span in 2016, sales increased 16.4 percent and dollar volume rose 20.2 percent.

Bray said 348 residential transactions worth a total of $85 million were reported in Mesa County during July. That brings year-to-date numbers for the residential market to 2,203 sales worth a total of
$531 million. Compared to the same span in 2016, transactions increased 13.1 percent and dollar volume rose 19.1 percent.

The median price of residential sales rose 8 percent to $215,000, Bray said.

According to the latest information from CoreLogic, a research firm based in California, home prices rose 6 percent in Grand Junction between June 2016 and June 2017.

Bray said residential sales continue to reflect what he described as a “move up” market in which buyers are purchasing larger or better homes from sellers doing the same thing. While residents account for most sales, purchases by people moving to the area play a larger role, he said.

At the pace of current sales, the inventory of existing homes on the market would last about three months. But higher prices continue to attract more sellers, Bray said.

Meanwhile, new home construction has surged, Bray said, with a 41-percent increase in the number of single-family building permits issued in Mesa County so far this year compared to last year.

Bray and Miller said real estate activity could slow a bit in the third and fourth quarters, but probably not dramatically. “I don’t see anything negative on the horizon,” Bray said.

If the current pace of activity were to continue, the year would end with nearly 5,300 transaction worth a total of  more than $1.2 billion. Annual real estate dollar volume peaked in Mesa County at
$1.72 billion in 2006, bottomed out in the recession that followed at $585 million in 2011 and has increased every year since then.

Bray said he expects the median price of residential sales to return by the end of the year to the peak of $225,000 last seen in 2008. The number of transactions could climb back to peak levels next year.

Meanwhile, property foreclosure activity continues to decline. Miller said 25 property foreclosure filings and 22 foreclosure sales were reported in Mesa County during July. Compared to the same month last year, filings dropped nearly 36 percent and sales retreated 18.5 percent.

Year to date, 239 filings and 170 sales were reported. Compared to the same span in 2017, filings fell 26.2 percent and sales dropped 20.6 percent. So far in 2017, the 142 resales of foreclosed properties constituted just 4.6 percent of all transactions, less than half the 10 percent threshold Miller considers indicative of a healthy market.